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A homemade hardwood Finnish game set with a storage box made from an old pallet.
The project
Finska - or Mölkky - is a fun outdoor game, not unlike ten pin bowling, where you throw a log of wood at wooden pins to score points. I made this set as a fun Christmas present for my family.
The first step for me was to make the pins. This set is full size, meaning the pins are 60mm in diameter and 15cm high. The top is cut at a 45 degree angle, with the numbers applied to that cut.
I couldn't get any premade dowels at 60mm, so I made my own. I laminated two lengths of hardwood together, then turned them into a cylinder on the lathe.
If you don't have (or don't want to use) a lathe, you could just as easily make this set using dowels, either 45mm (as the biggest sold by Bunnings) or there's also a mini Finska set, with 30mm pins. Any sort of saw (circular saw, jigsaw, hand saw, etc.) will all make short work of the 45-degree cut.
I used a table saw with a sled to cut the angle, then used a stencil to number each one.
The throwing log is similar - 60mm in diameter, but cut straight, and 22cm long.
With all of the parts cut, I moved on to the box. It's super simple construction - timber from an old pallet I had lying around, butt joints, glue and a few nails to hold it all together. To get the size (and position the handles) I laid the pins out, as I wanted them in the box, and measured the space they took up. That became the inside measurement for my box, and I added the width of the box timber to get the outside measurement. I have even seen a kit to make your own wooden crate at Bunnings.
The final step was to provide the instructions and scorecard. Fortunately, you can download both of these, in PDF format, from finska.com.au/how-to-play-finska. After printing, I laminated them and the set was all ready to go.
Here's the set all packed up.
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